How to list all the reasons a person might have for interacting with the world in any given manner!

My reputation seems to precede me occasionally. Other times I get pecked by the least little rooster chicks. A little rooster came after me the other day and it took every bit of love in my heart not to squash him like a bug. By the end he had pretty much exposed all of himself that there was to see, and the show was over. He'll learn eventually.

If you were there, you saw this. If you weren't, it's gone now. It was a classic example of discernment.

Parin Stormlaughter I have become doctor phobic. Just the thought of a doctor visit sends me spiraling.

[rooster] OH boy, here we go again with the mighty storm laugher! REALLY? Your life is spiraling out of control not just your head! Mary Jane is gonna get her fired and doctors are evil. I would ask what you do endorse but your political views are waaay too obvious. [Original Poster] is my homie and I dont want your toxic ooze in my community. I wish there was a captain storm slaughter abortive pill we could all take, or you would hop in your fairy costume and fly the fuck outta here.

Parin Stormlaughter LOL go smoke a bowl, [rooster].

When I saw this, I hadn't the foggiest notion what this fellow was talking about. I'm retired on disability pension so there is nothing for me to get "fired" from. [Original Poster] and I have participated in a couple of chronic illness online support communities for a number of years. She knows me. No idea what community he thinks I'll be oozing toxicity into.

It seems he has associated me with a political view on cannabis. Where on earth he got that is beyond me as well. Anyone who reads my blog is quite aware that I consider plants to be premier medicines, foods, companions in their own way - but, until Federal law changes, cannabis is illegal to grow and/or possess in all 50 states. And you can bet that if I wanted to utilize cannabis, I'd grow it myself. There is not a professional cannabis farm that grows organic cannabis on a large scale. They're likely to use just as many chemical pesticides, weed killers, chemical fertilizers and whatnot as any other non-organic farmer. Who knows? There may be a "Round-up ready" cannabis seed out there. Not for me. I use organic for virtually every plant that goes into my body. If cannabis ever becomes legal and I decide to try it, I'll grow my own thank you very much.

The discussion is moot. I'm not spending any time thinking about cannabis. There are plenty more plants for me to explore that I can legally grow myself, or that will grow wild without a bit of work from me.

[participant] Well that's original!

Parin Stormlaughter [rooster's] just mad because I keep denying his friend requests.

[rooster] Anybody want a good laugh...maybe even a storm of laughs? I dont have anything to say beyond youre a lune and here is proof http://sparklingwithcrystals.blogspot.com/

[rooster] I am an atheist, I dont fear god or any of your stupid superstitions retard! what differnce would it make if you were tweeting it? Are your fellow losers gonna come at me in minnions? just go back to WoW were you are still cool.

Parin Stormlaughter I've never played World of Warcraft in my life. Somebody got into my checking account and drained it for a WoW site.

I had made a Ping post previously about Word of Warcraft that appeared on all my sites.

[rooster] well for that I am sorry...nope I am not really! HAHA, you spread your moronic filth that rots the minds of your race. False hope in prayers and other BS just makes people believe that everything will be ok, melts polar ice caps, kills millions in wars, leads to disease spreading...youre a wretch and I hope you die!

Parin Stormlaughter *sigh* And what moronic filth is that, [rooster]? You certainly credit me with an awful lot of power.

Parin Stormlaughter Oh - what race am I btw?

Parin Stormlaughter I really am sorry, [Original Poster], but baiting [rooster] is just too much fun.

[rooster] its all there dumb dumb read it again

By this time, tears of laughter and sarcasm had overcome me.

Parin Stormlaughter But [rooster]! I want to see you say it again! And again! And again! Something about your special choice of words...can't quite pin it down...

[rooster] and btw, i only friend requested you so that i could tell you without inconveniencing [Original Poster]. If you had half a brain you would have figured that out. if you actually cared about [Original Poster] you wouldnt tell her your affraid of docs this month when you said you trust them last month! empty words!

Parin Stormlaughter Busted! My "comment" field is open to everybody and always has been.

You just wanted to see my gorgeous face...

Parin Stormlaughter And my blog is your favorite, so why not comment there?

I think that secretly, you wish you were me, with all my powers to melt polar ice caps and spread disease, ALL BY MYSELF.

It goes on. He makes sexual references, calls me a subspecies, and tells me he sincerely hopes I die in pain again. Oh, and he says I have a "sour attitude".

I was collapsing with laughter. Nothing would have induced me to beat this man with anything but love!

He really had not done his homework. I'm really not much fun to fight with, truth be told. I never fight unless I feel certain I'll win, and I take no joy in besting others. This poor entrepreneur wasn't worth going to war over. He wasn't after the original poster and I can take care of myself.

It is so glaringly obvious that he does not have a clue who I am or what I believe, nor does he have the slightest concern about anyone who is chronically ill. He hasn't read my blog nearly as closely as he would have anyone believe. Well, I hope that's the case. Maybe he read it and simply didn't understand. That's always possible.

Somebody flagged his comments. It's an important thing to do and next time he comes at me like this, I'll flag them myself. Hard to feel regretful for egging him on, though. I can take care of myself but another chronically ill person retired on disability pension reading his attack on me might have been dreadfully hurt by what he said. It was important to them to see that love beats hate, even if it's tough sarcastic love.

I wish him well. I'll continue to pray for him.

"May God bless him, may He give him all kinds of good things and if possible, may He love him more and more." St. Therese of Lisieux

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Too many of us who are chronically ill and disabled have to give up our precious spoons to fight off attacks from sometimes aggressive and assuredly misguided people.

I plan to participate in this blog event with an article about a dreadful episode that happened to me recently. Blogger Extraordinaire Diana Lee of Somebody Heal Me is helping to organize the Love Beats Hate Blog Event. Check out Diana's article and the list of participating blogs.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Why I don't cook, use knives or other sharp objects, operate motorized vehicles or heavy equipment, or do much other than type and get sarcastic with assholes. This is a copy-and-paste from my personal notes.

Combine all ingredients in a 16 oz vinegar bottle and cap tightly. Label and date. Shake gently but thoroughly. Set aside on the counter for 8 weeks or so. Strain into an 8 oz bottle, cap tightly, and transfer label.

Dose is 1/4 tsp every 30 minutes until symptoms diminish. Dilute in 1/4 cup water or chamomile tea if desired.

11/13/10
This will teach me not to make medicine when I’m migrainey. This should have been made with feverfew instead of valerian. I misjudged the size of bottle I would need, choosing one that was too small. I was only able to get in 1/2 oz of lavender instead of a full ounce like Rosemary Gladstar’s recipe called for. I spilled vodka trying to transfer the whole mess into a larger bottle. I had enough vodka to fill it to about the 10 or 12 oz level.

None of this is fatal. The combination should work quite nicely. It just wasn’t what I had planned to do. And when I was through, I felt like crying.

So, what I’ve made is a nervine for stress, anxiety, and sleep instead of a migraine preventative preparation. And now I’m out of vodka so I can’t make the correct one.

Moral of the story: Don’t make medicine when you should be taking medicine.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Take it or Leave it Category: Take what's useful...you know the tune. :)

One of the things we chronically ill folks will say in a heartbeat is that we will do nearly anything to treat our situations and get well. Of course, a generalization that broad would need clarification and individualization after all (no Santaria or Palo Mayombe, Briyumba or Kimbisa or anything in that category for me, for example). But if we can find something relatively safe with a reasonably good chance of working, we'll take a look at it.

Once I was able to concentrate solely on getting well, I jumped into healing with both feet. I couldn't work full time at a paying job so I determined that I would work full-time every day at getting well. I asked every doctor I had for all the recommendations that he or she could think of. I work closely with all my doctors and wouldn't dream of doing anything that they would disapprove.

I pondered and prayed, and several ideas presented themselves. I consulted an exquisite crystal healer and it changed the course of my healing. It became apparent that I had problems with my energy bodies. While prescription medicines and a couple of supplements did their things, I began work on my energy bodies.

I define my energy body as my internal nerve structures, spine, any and all nervous systems; and my external energy body such as aura, chakra system, and the weird energy fields I have no expectations that I'll ever fully understand in this life.

Donna Eden has developed a system by which people can use their hands to manipulate their own body energies (or the energy fields of others). I approve of her system. First, her system gets my thumbs-up because it teaches people to use their own energy and does not utilize the energy of anything or anyone else. It does not resemble such systems as Reiki which call on "universal energy" which, in fact, does not exist. But that part is for another column. Second, her system WORKS. Third, her system is easy to understand and remember.

So after working with her system and home rock medicine (wouldn't ever consider what I do as real crystal healing), I felt better but not sufficiently better. I began homebrewing mead and medicinal beers, foraging my semi-wild backyard for healing herbs, and then I fell and broke my neck.

Yep, I broke a bone spur off my C-5 vertebra. Come to learn that I've got spine problems from my C-1 all the way to my tailbone. So, I added get spinal work done to my list.

I wasn't getting good results from chiropractics. Every adjustment seemed to trigger every symptom I had so I gave it up.

Honestly, at that point I was stumped. I made an appointment with Pam Oslie, a psychic in California. She had very specific--Edgar Cayce-type specific--recommendations for work on my spine that I needed. She cautioned me that I might need rods on either side of my spine if I couldn't get the problems fixed (yeah, I've got scoliosis too). Anybody coming at my back with a knife will get what I'd give anybody attempting to stab me in the back. So, just don't go there, docs.

Anyway, now I'm getting superb physical therapy treatments on my neck and back according to her recommendations--very good results!! The treatments have tremendously improved the flow of nerve impulses throughout my entire self. If the physical therapist I were seeing had less education and experience, I don't believe he would have been able to locate the problems solely by touch. They don't show up on x-rays or MRI but do show up--ok, get this--Pam Oslie saw them and the PT can feel them. The doctoral student who conducted the evaluation caught every single nuance in my (lack of) balance and the PT will help with it as well.

One thing that continues to trouble me is utterly perplexing sensitivity. I'm not sensitive - I am the sensor itself. I'm not a careful observer - I'm the Princess from The Princess and the Pea. That was one of my late father's nicknames for me. He'd say, "All right, Princess and the Pea..."

I've carefully read and learned about my astrological natal chart as part of my healing work - hell, I've about gotten all that's out there of pharmaceuticals and Western medicine so I plunged into complementary and more esoteric, metaphysical work.

In my astrological chart, I found the reflection of my sensitivity which was comforting in a way. It said to me that for the most part, I had not caused it; however, it is utterly part of who I am and cannot be separated from my self-ness. According to chart progressions, I can expect it to get worse, or to say it another way, I will become more intuitive, sensitive, aware of energy, psychic, and so on as I finish up the second half of my life. My energetic vacuum will self-upgrade to industrial strength in about 10 years. It's bad now. I cannot picture what it will be like in 10 years.

Before I spoke with Pam Oslie, I had read her book Life Colors: What the Colors in Your Aura Reveal and taken her online "aura color" test. I had done my little thing and determined that she would be a good fit for what I needed to know.

She told me that, in her system, I was a "life color" that she doesn't see often: Crystal. Well, "Crystal" was tied for second place on the online test I took but once she described "Crystals", I was convinced that she was right.

Crystals, one might say, are no one until we're with someone. We don't have much energetic personality so to speak until we come in contact with another person. When we do, we suck energy from the other person and fill our aura out with the "color" of the other person.

When I'm with a "yellow", I'm yellow. When I'm with a "blue", I'm blue. On page 155 in her book, Pam Oslie says

Crystal is a rare Life Color. Crystals have clear auras and are known as the "aura chameleons". Like chameleons, their auras will change colors to match those of the people they are connecting with at the time. They then take on the characteristics, emotions, and thoughts of that color. Consequently, in power Crystals can get along quite well with almost anyone. Yellows, for example, feel they can relate to Crystals who, when they are with them, act and think like Yellow. Later when the same Crystals spend time with Sensitive Tans, the Tans feel as if they have found kindred spirits. However, Crystals' inconsistencies can also confuse people. One minute Crystals think and behave like Greens. Later they can act like Blue. The more they bond with others, the more their personalities change. Because Crystals tend to absorb the colors of other people's auras, people can, at times, feel an energy drain when they are in the presence of Crystals.

She doesn't have as much about Crystals in her book as she does other Life Colors. Her best recommendation for my Crystal problems is to immerse myself outside in Nature which, to me, is only the most wonderful thing next to sex... :D

Next, more on my Crystalline self and the various Nature things I'm doing to solve my issues. I've gotten a piece of more specific, concrete advice to chew on so to speak.

So, I'm consulting psychics and learning to read astrological charts, working with rocks and herbs and foraging wild plants from my backyard along with taking prescription medicine and going through physical therapy.

Still think there's anything I won't do to get well? Within reason, of course? :)

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

One day about 10 or 12 years ago, the forecast here was for sparkling sunshine and clear blue skies. At lunchtime, jets flew over leaving expanding trails that left the sky overcast for the rest of the day.

The television meteorologists didn't know how to explain it to the viewers. They simply reported that the sky was clear as had been forecast, then it wasn't and they had no data to show what had happened. They did this one time. In spite of how many times it has happened since then, no one has said a word.

When some jets leave trails and some don't, when those trails expand massively, and when that phenomenon cannot be explained, something is wrong.

"A" shaped contrail??I took this picture in April 2006

Governments around the world do things all the time. Private citizens do too and the government cannot or will not engage them. Chemically sensitive people like me get sicker and sicker when more and more chemicals are introduced into the air, water, and soil.

The video is extremely well done, haunting music with quite an expert at the sound board. Troubles me that the music runs throughout the whole thing like a B-movie. It's done to manipulate emotion and retain viewer attention. This issue shouldn't need those movie tricks.

It's beyond me why no one is able to figure out who is spraying. Many of the jets that do this are painted pure white with no identifying numbers or symbols. What airport allows egress and ingress to that kind of jet?

I've been following this issue for a long time, a very long time. Virtually no progress has been made except that for about ten years, most of the spraying around here now occurs during the colder months. At first, the spraying was conducted year 'round.

About 4 years ago, several of us took a break at work and watched a sky-writer plane advertise a processed meat manufacturing company. I took a couple of pictures. I wondered at the time what was in the spray. Maybe it's the same substance that the jets spray. I took the pictures in September 2006. My last day before suddenly becoming disabled was two months later, November 2006.

I certainly don't know what's going on in the sky. I do know what's going on with my sensitive self. My sensitivity is getting worse.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

This one is rather "out there" so, as always, take what's useful and discard the rest. :)

I sustained a blow to my energy body first thing Saturday morning. I'm still recovering. Thank you to my incomparable friends for their love and help. I'm working hard to get well enough fast enough that I won't miss physical therapy in a little while. It has been wonderful so far and I cannot miss an appointment now!

There is a thing called ill-wishing that Christianity for sure advises against and no doubt other belief systems of good-will find wrong as well. Ill-wishing can cause bad effects in the one wished ill upon, it isn't character-building for the ill-wisher, and simply isn't constructive to resolving the problem. There are several proven and time-honored methods for deflecting ill-wishing and even turning it back upon the ill-wisher.

I only recommend what my belief system advises. Matthew 5:43-45 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven; for He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

What's sad about ill-wishing, or rather what is particularly sad about this specific event, is that I was completely uninvolved in any way in the problem that the wisher was faced with. I was a victim of false accusation generated in her own mind. The wisher did try prayer afterwards to "make me not hate" her but I've never hated her to begin with! My heavens, I don't hate anybody!

This is a classic example of false accusation, bad conscience, and how it can cause true assault on someone else's energy body. I felt the surge of hatred and anger just as truly as though she had been in front of me swinging her fist. Her ill-wishing physically injured me just as though she had.

Some people have inborn talent to maneuver and manipulate their own energy. They can do things like slam people they don't like and make all their friends line up and "do right". If they're really in denial, they say things like, "people who cross me always have something bad happen to them!" I shake my head when I hear that. You're more likely to be causing the other person trouble yourself by nothing more sinister than your own ill-wishing. Nothing to write home about there.

Some people are more susceptible to ill-wishing than others. I am extremely sensitive to it, so sensitive it would defy comprehension; however, I've got references. I have had to find ways of contending with it throughout my entire life, and it remains a problem now.

One person who has seen how ill-wishing whacks me said, "Well, quit pissing people off!" That wouldn't have helped in this situation because I had nothing to do with it in the first place. I don't often have much to do with things that cause people to ill-wish upon me. I get more general crap from Christian-haters, people who hate my former employer, people who hate my friends, and that sort of thing.

I got whacked because of someone else's bad conscience, Scorpionic desire for revenge, and Leonine conviction that she is leading the way in saving the world by going after people like me. Then she discovered that I wasn't doing anything.

Give me a freakin' break. And keep your ill-wishing to yourself. We're on the same side here and please keep that in mind.

When all this came to light I thought to myself, wow, some people credit me with a lot more power than I have, and some underestimate me entirely.

For the record, I'm in the middle.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Physical therapy resembles manure. Yeah it stinks but once it's worked in well, it's the best thing your garden soil can get.

I feel like I've been pooped-upon, in the sense of the above statement. XD

I'm so sore. I can feel muscles that I imagine haven't been moved in a couple of decades. Again I got manual traction. He also did something he called "upper cervical spine release" where he actually isolated the first three cervical vertebrae and shifted and manipulated around each one separately.

It felt so good that I'm afraid I may have sounded...orgasmic. XD

What he did last TENSday set off many of my symptoms. Stupid stress over the worst sorts of human behavior exacerbated the situation and I had a terrible weekend. I was upfront with him about how bad I felt. He apparently understood what I meant.

When we finished, I felt as much better as I had felt bad when I arrived. I've got some exercises to do and a couple of additional ideas for improving recovery between sessions.

In looking over his educational achievements briefly listed on his business card, he appears to my uneducated eye to be about 2 years from an osteopathic doctor degree. In another state of this Union, he would probably qualify for licensing that Alabama simply doesn't have. He speaks with authority and his manipulations of my spine have been precise and effective. The guy's in the right business. He knows what he's doing.

In one pocket I had put a tumbled blue calcite and in the other pocket, a double-terminated/ET lithium quartz. Vibrationally, calcite helps "break up" old systems that are no longer working (useful constipation treatment is clear calcite in water, or as a formal gemstone remedy). Lithium quartz I believe will help me with my recently-developed doctor phobia. Today, the Moon is in Taurus which rules the neck. Things came together to make today a very, very good neck day.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Well! We might be excavating deeply enough to find some real therapy to go along with the drugs to work on my Meniere's Syndrome and Migraine Disease.

At the moment, I'm iced up and doing some music therapy for the pain in my head. The pain's not pounding yet but it will be in a little while. That's what physical therapy on a neck can do! Taking meds now and I'll be off for rocks shortly. Chris told me to expect all this exacerbation of symptoms.

Many of my Meniere's buds and I have a thin strip of painful muscles down the sides of our necks on the side (or sides) in which we also have Meniere's. My right ear is currently diagnosed with Meniere's. The painful strip running down the right side of my neck has made me weep from the relentless intensity. Neither ice nor heat relieve the pain nor even mitigate it. With the Migraine preventative medication regimen I'm on, nearly all pain in my entire body responds to either Advil, Aleve, or if it's Migraine, to Indocin (occasionally I'll need my really big pain guns but not often). They'll relieve the thin strip of pain but not the tenderness when I touch it.

Today, physical therapist Chris got to work on my neck. He worked and worked and suddenly SHAZAAM. He touched that painful strip (which had not been actively hurting and isn't hurting now) and I nearly came off the table from the hurt. I felt it inside my right Meniere's ear HARD.

[As an aside, I felt bad for the other people in the clinic who heard my *ack*. Hope they didn't wonder if Chris was throttling me or something. XD]

He told me he had touched a group of 3 muscles called the scalenes. Scalene muscles are innervated by one or more of the very vertebrae in my neck that I know are in trouble: C-2 through C-7. Chris told me that if we had time he'd get the anatomy book out and we'd look at it but dang, he spent two hours on my backbone as it was and I was a steak tender at the end. I told him I'd look it up on the internet.

Scalene muscles seem to be associated with a repetitive injury called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS). TOS causes, among other things, numbness across the tops of your arms down to the ends of certain fingers. That's a sensation I have during some migraine attacks, usually during prodrome. Won't matter if I have TOS if they can just fix it. Not looking for yet another diagnosis. All I want is to get well.

Anyway, Chris worked like a field medic: he noted how bad he was hurting me but it didn't stop him. He got all up and under my C-1, also called the Atlas bone, but otherwise didn't do much near my vertebrae at all. He concentrated on neck muscles.

Last thing he did on my neck was something he called "manual traction". MY WORD I'd hire that man to do that to me every day. I told him I felt an inch taller but he said he hoped he'd not stretched me but half that. XD

We took a break and he showed me how to use my TENS unit. E-stim which clinics use for pain relief is very good for me so I'm pumped about trying this for pain. Chris gave me free reign to use it wherever I needed it. COOL BEANIES.

[Another aside: TENS units are not designed for the electrodes to be used directly on the head. There is a company that makes an over-the-counter mini-TENS for headache but otherwise, don't anybody use TENS electrodes directly on your head unless your doc or PT tells you to and even then, have them explain why your prescription durable medical equipment TENS unit is safe enough for your head, why not?]

I have enough pain in other places that I could burn up the batteries in short order, I imagine. And, after trying a nice little TENS secret that the owner of the clinic uses for vestibular problems, we discovered last week that it temporarily stopped the migraine pain that last week's work triggered. I'm telling you, Dr. Breathtakingly Arrogant is onto something. He spotted my Meniere's (which is a cochlear condition sometimes called cochlear hydrops) and told me that many of his tough cases have cochlear issues as well as migraine.

I had a rare opportunity, during my first visit to clinic, to be evaluated by a physical therapy doctoral student. She was utterly amazing. Never have I had a more thorough spinal and balance evaluation, ever. She was about to recommend a...walker...but said that if I was doing ok and not falling with my cane, it would do. Elder Assistant Offspring told me that if it ever did come down to a walker, she and my other daughter would pimp it out for me. My only request was for headlights. LOLOL

Anyway, that's a status report on the state of my head. I've decided to name my TENS unit "Scalene". After while Scalene and I gonna hook up and go cruisin'. :)

Some links below to information about scalene muscles if you're just interested.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

"For the few bereaved who are severely impaired or at risk of suicide, doctors can already apply the diagnosis of major depression. But don’t change the rules for everyone else. Let us experience the grief we need to feel without being called sick." Allen Frances, an emeritus professor and former chairman of psychiatry at Duke University

Hands down, the most lucidly-considered grief-healing article by an M. D. that I have ever read.

Please read the article and take hope, all ye who despair at the state of Western Medicine. But do note that this M. D. is a psychiatrist. Would that all medical doctors had this outlook towards healing.

I've issued an Exploding Head Warning for today through Sunday, so I'm off to crawl underneath rocks. Storms, heat, melatonin (I believe it's a stand-alone migraine trigger, just need to test it maybe once more), and a classic healing crisis have knocked me back a few steps.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

This piece of idiocy is adequately refuted by the comments left by readers.

Which adolescents are being prescribed pain meds and then becoming heroin addicts? Which baby boomers are out-of-control with pain medication? What if the children had been properly supervised and the adults properly supported by their families and friends?

I feel a major rant coming on and I don't need it. They make me sicker and set me back getting well.

The goofy article grabs attention by sensationalizing pain medicine use and ends up garbling something about Viagra. The writer expects us to see OxyContin abuse in the same light as Viagra overuse??

I've got to stop or I'll be ill. Please do read both the articles and the comments. If you are under any impression that prescription pain medicine use is a problem, I'll link you to some solid research into the overuse effects of acetaminophen. When this over-the-counter drug came out the television advertisements told us there was no way to ever use too much.

Monday, August 9, 2010

New Moon in Leo tonight and all this solar drama has done me up a treat. Thanks to the energy healer, you know who you are, who got in there and unblocked some things. It helped. Praying for your intentions. :)

I'm going to be out of medicine in a few days if this doesn't stop.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

I've slept 18 of the last 24 hours, still need sleep. Dreamed that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been married to my old choir director's son. She asked me to please investigate why no one will allow her to excavate the construction accident site where his remains are buried [as far as I know, IRL the man is alive and well and living happily ever after].

Then I dreamed my late father gave me $10 to buy some lobster that was on sale. My brother and cousin weren't interested in lobster so we didn't get any.

Just did a heat/ice alternating thing on my head. It helped the pain somewhat. I've discovered an additional nerve in my face that is now flowing with battery acid. One more to add to the list.

My right ear has stopped doing deep Chinese gong tinnitus. In addition to the regular 4 tinnitus sounds, it's been screaming a high-pitched squeal since yesterday (different from the Morse Code beeps). My left ear has taken up the deep Chinese gongs. Disequilibrium is so bad I'm trying not to walk because I'm just crashing into the wall and furniture.

Rescue medicating on days like today is dangerous. I keep thinking that more will be better. More will not necessarily be better. More of the meds I have could be very, very bad.

I'm sitting here in the dark wearing prescription sunglasses. I can't turn off the loudest of the fans because it's 95o outside and the a/c can't keep up. I may have to get ear plugs. With ear plugs I REALLY hear the tinnitus. The neurotologist diagnosed me with a level of disability from tinnitus by itself. You can't imagine how nuts it can drive you.

I have a good glare screen on my laptop. I utilize the Windows Vista accessibility features to make the screen less painful to my eyes. Today those features aren't helping. I'm typing this with my eyes closed, for all intents and purposes. I need to get off here and I will shortly.

Many compassionate people are so understanding of pain. But unless you have migraine, you can't wrap your mind around how stupid it is. Really, medicating on days like today is dangerous. The impulse is to take more and more and more medicine to make the pounding pain STOP.

I'm into complementary treatments just to fill the gap between medications and relief. I'm going to get some rocks that I know will help until the OxyIR, Indocin, Valium, and Robinul kick in. I'll get them just as soon as I can get up without falling.

Fifteen seconds after I stand up, my head will explode and I'll have a stroke. Well, maybe no stroke this time but there is no way to predict which migraine will be a migraine and which one will be a stroke. My situation includes mitral valve prolapse which, according to a long-prior neurologist who succumbed to pancreatic cancer, is likely to be spitting out tiny blood clots that are traveling to my brain. One day, he told me, my MVP would spit out a blood clot just a tidbit too big and instead of a migraine attack, it would cause a stroke. I'd likely die. Pleasant thoughts but in his defense, he told me this about 6 months before he died himself so death was on his mind.

Biggest issue next to this attack is food. I'm hungry. But I'm not safe in the kitchen right now. I broke off a piece of bread and had it with cottage cheese. That's what I've had today but really, I haven't been awake very long either. Next will be Lucky Charms and milk. I have a can of Campbell's Healthy Request (or Choice, or something) that has no MSG. If I feel better enough after while I 'll heat it up. That will be a big help.

If I get to feeling better I'm going to have to make a comfrey/catnip infusion to help repair the effects of all the Indocin I've had in the last 2 days. This particular infusion is utterly amazing for relieving the stomach pain from NSAIDs.

And, I've gained weight. No matter the pounds, my waist still stays smaller than my hips. That a Sagittarius Sun for you (Sagittarius rules hips and thighs). No joke, I seriously could do with some poundage loss but officially, I'm still proportionate. Go figure.

Just wanted to share how stupid migraine and Meniere's attacks are. Going to try to solve this without taking any more meds for a while. I could barely swallow the last pills I took. My body doesn't want to take any more pills even though my brain believes I need to in order to get relief.

Those one or two distance energy healers that know who you are, if you have time to help out a poor soul, I'll pray for your intentions in return.

I am so f***** up sick.

Copyright 2008-2010 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Ever on the look-out for ways to improve men's health, I saw this article and felt compelled to share it.

Men, you know what to do. LOOK AT YOUR WIVES. Sheesh.

It's been a long 19 years since I divorced my boob-starer. Sad times for me. :/

Wives, do you part to increase your husbands' longevity. Better he look at you than some other gal, eh?

I'm going to barricade myself against the solar storm set to hit the Earth tomorrow, 8/3/10. Check out spaceweather.com to read about the neat but odd solar eruption that occurred on 8/1. I'm feeling it now.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Please read the article, check out Alexandra Carmichael's CureTogether site, and ponder whether this might be a better use of taxpayer dollars than government-run EHRs.

Not doing well. July is just a bad month for me all around. Going to hide underneath some rocks and read about the monster of an alligator not too far from me in Mulga, Alabama. I've only seen a picture of it but man, it was a beauty. Must have been at least 7 feet long.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Who doesn't approve of being healthy? Well, I should phrase the question, "who wouldn't like to improve his or her health?" Probably most everybody wants improved health. I sure as heck want to improve my health and I work at it like a full-time job.

The attached article disturbs my long-term thinking. My father chided me for years to stop "what-if?" -ing so intently. My thick Taurus Ascendant brain finally learned not to postulate within his hearing. My brain continued to extrapolate nevertheless.

I "what-if" -ed my way through this article and ended up disturbed at the potentials that this EHR law brought up in my mind.

I'm not huge into BMI as a key health indicator. There are few absolutes in health, I am learning. My issue with EHRs isn't limited to BMIs. The whole thing illustrates what can happen when laws are pushed through before adequate time for reflection is allowed. I expect that many, many issues will arise due to legislation passed since January 2009 that will be the undoing of many.

I metaphorically flipped the mental switch to turn off the "and then...and then...and then..." You can join the fun by letting your mind imagine every wrong thing that medicine and the government can think up to do with your body measurements. Be sure to add in hackers and information thieves who would love to know your information too.

I'm going to drink a nice hot cup of mugwort, mullein, and sweet woodruff tisane sweetened with hops syrup. I'm not going to worry. "Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof" is how I learned this verse. My current Bible reads, "Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day." Matthew 6:35. I've got enough to do getting from sleep to sleep.

But I'll tell you this from my decades of association with the government under administrations from Eisenhower through Obama: If they can identify a problem they've caused, they'll do the best they can to tax it as stringently as possible as well.

Monday, June 28, 2010

No joke, I've got to figure out a way around Full Moon/New Moon Meniere's/migraine attacks. They're kicking my butt. Through my head.

Medicated patch systems are mentioned in this article as one of the ways pharmaceutical pollution reaches the water supply. I use the Vivelle_dot estrogen replacement patch myself. The package insert gives directions for removing residual components after patch changing - basically, you use rubbing alcohol to dissolve the adhesive and a cotton ball to wipe it away. I'll be redoubling my clean-up efforts now you may rest assured.

I'm hitting the sack with rocks. If I don't have to take any meds I'll be happier, but I'm not going to sit around suffering. I've determined that it's not good for my state of mind. Emotional hygiene is one of my New Year's Resolutions and one I've begun to get a handle on. Never want to lose ground. It may happen, but it'll be against my will if it does. B)

One of life's joys is to experiment! Try new things! Expand your horizons!

I'm a huge experimenter. Sagittarius Sun in 8th House, after all - the eternal quest to experience quests. I most assuredly experienced a quest recently.

I've been battling depressive dips as part of Migraine prodrome for a few years. They've not always been present. No idea why suddenly they suddenly appeared. Maybe they'll disappear.

I already take a therapeutic dose of a marvelous antidepressant, Effexor XR, every day. It's part of my Migraine preventative regimen which also includes verapamil and Keppra. Other than the regular "blues" that everybody contracts, I shouldn't feel depressed.

These depressive dips don't cause me worry anymore, not like they did when they first started. Still, I don't like them. I never want to have another one.

I was battling one of them the other night. St. John's wort, a safe mood-enhancing herb, isn't something I want to try to combine with Effexor. So I started hunting around for something else to try.

I found again--kava kava root, also called simply kava. I've tried kava capsules but of all things, they make my head hurt! Still, I've used them for social events. I can speak to and perform for 3 people or 3 million people, live or taped or by tin-can telephone if you like. Show biz is a breeze. But please, never ever ask me to go to a grown-up party where I don't personally know and deeply love at least 85% of the folks in the room. Rivers of glow streak my makeup and soak my underclothing. I throw up. I dream of death and it would be easy and welcome. Groan-and-throw-up parties are what I consider hell to be like. Kava has made it possible for me to discharge social duties I'd otherwise never be able to handle. Kids parties? Love'em, threw them for my daughters regularly. Kept me out of the groan-grown-throw-up parties.

But I can't deal with anything else that makes my head hurt. So kava stays in the bottle on the shelf for emergency social appearances.

I have absolutely no idea what possessed me to order shredded kava root a while back. I've amassed a mass of herbs from Frontier Co-op and Mountain Rose Herbs and a couple of other places. I've been reading Susun Weed and Rosemary Gladstar and remembering things I used to do with plants when I was younger.

Anyway - so I remember I've got these shredded kava roots. You shouldn't heat water to make kava beverages because some of the active ingredients are destroyed at 140oF and higher. Capsules would seem like the perfect alternative but many of them contain kava stems and leaves which have been linked to liver damage (and they don't have any good relaxation benefits either - they just fill up the capsules with less of the active root powder). Worse, some capsules are doctored with various kava extracts prepared with chemical solvents that should never be used in the preparation of anything intended for a human body.

So, I've got these shredded kava roots.

I've watched the shows on TV describing traditional methods for preparation of kava beverages. Seems that the roots are never eaten or fermented in any way. They're just powdered, chewed, or ground and mixed with water. Then they're either kneaded or blenderized, strained, and then drunk. Straightforward, really.

Blame it on the Lunar Eclipse that hit my Sagittarius 8th House. Blame it on my own curiosity. Blame anyone but me for wanting to try CHEWING SHREDDED KAVA ROOT to see what that segment of traditional beverage preparation would be like. Mastication seems to make the kavalactones more easily accessed. And it would be FUN.

I had been reading accounts of poor virgin daughters of Pacific Island tribal chiefs who would elope to avoid the chore of chewing kava root for the whole tribe. Poor things! Sexually pure virgins were considered to have what it took to make the perfect kava bolus. Girls have left virginity behind for less than kava roots, it seemed to me. Surely if I was making just a serving for myself (half the average quantity as always at first, to gauge my sensitivity), I could do it.

Chewing shredded roots! I eat carrots all the time! Surely I was up to chewing dried kava! I closed my eyes and dove into a nice pinch of the tablespoon I had settled upon for the 2 cups of water I wanted to use.

Three tablespoons of kava root it took me to decide that this was fun to do--once. The taste was fairly pleasant as dried roots go but the resulting goo was disgusting to look at before getting stirred into water (figured out on the second serving to just put the chewed pinches directly into the tap water), and once I got a small splinter in my throat that wouldn't go up or down for a minute. The blenderizing didn't smooth out the chewed pinches as much as I expected but that worked out well for the straining step.

All in all, it was an adventure in libation. If you shoot the drink it hits faster but wears off quickly as well. If you sip it, you may never know you've had any. But so far, no head pain.

Best of all, this delightful little adventure got me out of the Migraine dumps. Chewing shredded kava roots is like chewing toothpicks soaked in Novocaine. I imagine they'd be splendid for a sore throat or if you bit your tongue or something like that. Once I finally make it through what I've got left, I'm going the powder route which, I understand, is the preferred method nowadays in the areas where kava grows.

If I ever decide to do this again, that is. I'm not convinced that the benefits are worth the effort and besides, next time it won't be a first-time adventure. I'll have to go through this ritual several more times before I decide for sure. There are a couple of things to be aware of so take a minute to read the attached article, please, before embarking on kava.

I'll have to find something else when the depressive dip rolls around again and only an adventure will solve it. Need to make friends with an ethnobotanist, maybe try smoking mugwort or snorting sneezewort, something legal, safe, and new.

I made it through this time better off than I had been before. That's a good goal for next time. Now pardon me while I floss out a Novocaine toothpick. :)

Diana Lee has a critically analytical mind. Her commentary on the article she links to is excellent. Everybody read both her article and the one she comments on. What she and the article say are both absolutely right, in addition to being true. At IRS this would be called full, accurate, and complete.

Neither Diana's article nor the one she links to is about what to do in that Land of the Living Dead that exists between the end of pharmaceutical treatments and the end of the attack, but that little problem is a huge problem for me.

As Sparkling readers know, I'm huge into complementary treatments for Migraine and Meniere's, and for all the stuff that bothers me. It appears to me that complementary treatments are a Migraineur's sole port in the storm when he or she reaches the acute reimbursed pharmaceutical treatment limit, limits which despite claims to the contrary are frequently set by insurance companies according to toxicity of the treatment rather than desire to preserve company profits. I am aggressively pursuing complementary treatments to go with preventative work all in close conjunction with all my doctors. I'm all about prevention, myself. The fewer attacks that I have to treat at all, the better for me from my point of view.

Today's Full Scorpio Moon matches my own progressed Full Scorpio Moon and I'm taking the day to doctor it. I did a few little complementary things to prepare for this one and so far, this occurrence of the twice-monthly Full Moon/New Moon attacks is less intense than usual. That's a good thing.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Just a quick note before the Exploding Migraine Warning of a Significant Event goes into effect.

It hurts my heart that I have a substantial belief system difference with Susun Weed; therefore, I don't recommend her books. I do recommend the health information contained in them.

I'm improving daily from the herbal and "green" information in her menopause book. I have mourned my losses from my hysterectomy and ovary removal, integrating that I will never conceive another child, never hold another soul in my body along with my own.

Mourning has broken, and I'm whole again in that respect. You never really get over the death of a child and my four miscarriages will never go away. But now I am strong again with my conception and childbearing in the "experience" column. It hit me quite forcefully that I never dealt with all the physical things that surround surgical menopause after the surgery six years ago this month.

Time to deal with MENOPAUSE. :P

Oh, my word what a blessing Vivelle_dot estrogen replacement created from yam has been! Never, never did I dream that things could be so...even. I see now that a good number of my other maturation issues revolve and repeat themselves because I haven't physically cared for my different self which has had no ovaries or womb since 2004.

Time passes slowly when you're getting well. It passes very slowly when you're anxious to get on with living! My own belief system is maturing as my age progresses and I want to get on with practicing it as well.

In this so-far quiet year, the Mother Earth again has proven herself to be the true mother that she is. Abundant, so abundant, freely giving me her green plants and air, water and sunshine, rain and wind, and the life that is borne of flora and fauna. Husbandry and right use of Earth's abundance will restore me, rebuild me from the inside out and outside inward. Does it cost so much to give time to share what "right use of the Earth" really means?

Well, right this minute, yes! My head is pounding from tax meltdown - my mother accidentally wrote a check to IRS for $5 million. It was a clerical error one would correctly say and we caught it before it got mailed, but all the problems that would have needed to be solved had it made it to IRS burst into my mind. Her reaction to the mistake didn't help either of us. This entire weekend has dealt me an assault on my energy body. A long talk with a friend has helped as has rose quartz along with mullein, yarrow, and mugwort infusion. Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, I plan to be outside as much as I possibly can in sunshine, in the breeze, and taking a walk through the backyard if I can. I need my Earthly mother after taking care of my earthly mother!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

If you want to see a biofilm in action don't clean your teeth for a day, that gunky plaque is a biofilm - an appetizing blend of bacteria, sugars, proteins and bacterial DNA.'
- Carla Ross, http://www.seedsofwonder.typepad.com/

Well, I've must have a biofilm somewhere myself right now.

Night before last, I dreamt that I was showing someone a huge growth (non-existent in real life) on the left side of my neck. Yesterday I woke up with a tremendously painful, swollen, red tonsil.

I've doctored myself with echinacea, yarrow, and mullein infusion, used smokey quartz and amethyst for comfort, and rested and slept. A few minutes ago, my fever broke by itself. No meds taken other than my regular daily Meniere's and Migraine preventative meds.

I imagine it'll be tomorrow before it completely quits hurting when I swallow but I've turned the corner as the old saying in our family goes.

Since the first of the year I've been following a health plan designed by the author of the attached article, Peter D'Adamo, a naturopathic physician pioneer of blood type and health issues. I became sold on his concepts years ago when I saw improvements after making just a few changes in what I ate and how I dealt with stress using Dr. D'Adamo's blood type A secretor recommendations. Both of my daughters have benefited as well from his type O secretor recommendations.

Dr. D'Adamo's SWAMI Xpress System is a secured online database. With a purchased password, a person enters various bits of information such as fingerprint shape, length of certain fingers, specific head measurements, determinations such as which is longer: Torso or legs?

It is even quite detailed about such things as mitochondrial DNA haplogroup (if known) and Y chromosome information.

The database will sort the information input by the purchaser and designate a Geno Type and Epigenetic Worldview Type. What those facts mean to your health are explained in great detail in the printable report generated by the database.

The report includes an exhaustive list of health-improving recommended foods, foods nutritious but neutral, and foods best avoided for well-explained and documented reasons. The report contains much more information but you'll have to explore it yourself to find out!

SWAMI Xpress and information from an associated typing kit determined that I was a GT5 Warrior/Receptor Super-taster. I had already carefully read the book which preceded SWAMI Xpress, The Geno Type Diet by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo with Catherine Whitney. I was familiar with Dr. D'Adamo's Geno Types and had a feel for the broad ideas of epigenetics.

To paraphrase Dr. D'Adamo's marvelous descriptive terms, I'm a survivor with a mystical bend, one who made it through the war and lived to tell the tales and sing the lays, to teach the lessons of war and live the way of peace. These characteristics are utterly unique to the rest of the world who share my physical sort. Conditions I faced in the womb contribute to my Geno Type and epigenetics. Just as family members might have varied blood types and Rh factors, family members may differ vastly epigenetically speaking.

I'm a lookout of sorts too, one might say, the canary in the coal mine. Receptor types "receive" everything around them and for me that's everything: germs, energy, weather, wind, inflections of a voice and turns of a phrase in speech, timing, temperature, sounds, tastes, and my word the list could go on for another page. Dr. D'Adamo identifies Receptive types as "immune tolerant" and my SWAMI Xpress plan is designed to switch on the genes that protect me from germies and deal with issues like cancer (that can be stopped, and probably frequently gets stopped, by healthy immune systems every day).

I don't believe I've read anything in Dr. D'Adamo's work about Receptives being energetic and emotional vacuum cleaners but that's what I am. In three months my overall health has improved noticeably. I wouldn't say I was any more functional but I'm healthier. My mother is quite dusty and gritty energetically and emotionally, so my vacuum cleaner stays full no matter how often I change the bag, to put this in metaphorical terms. Solving my receptivity to things of that nature is on my list. Unfortunately, it's not covered by SWAMI Xpress!

Please read the article carefully. Consider checking out Dr. D'Adamo's books from the library and seeing if you think you'd benefit from his ideas. The food recommendations are balanced, varied, widely available, and most importantly they're real foods. No diet foods on this plan!

I'll continue to post my progress. I've got other New Year's Resolutions to work on but improving my health between attacks is progressing.